Draining Fuel Tank

[Guest sarciod]

:lol: help!!! i have put 15 ltrs of uleaded in my 115 tdi i drove it for about 1/2 a mike and it stalled the aa towed me home and said it was a dealer only job can i diy and will it have caused any damage

tahnks sarciod :unsure:

[johnb80]

Drain the tank, remove the fuel filter and empty it. Fill the tank as much as you can to dilue any remaining petrol, fill the fuel filter and start it up. Go and fill the tank full and it should be OK. I did this on my new transit van 3 years ago except it was 75 litres in an 80 litre tank. No problems occured afterwards, do it sooner rather than later though, the petrol *may* be affecting seals etc.

 

Regards - John

[Guest thecodfly]

if you do a search on this problem you will find lots of help and find you are not alone

[Guest sarciod]

:lol: About to try and put things right will let u know how goes thanks for everyones help :unsure:

[seatkid]

oops!

 

Don't worry, just do as above and you should be OK

[Guest MATT]

my neighbour recently put petrol in his 3.0TDI X5, and it cost

[seatkid]

the dealer said that petrol will sink to the bottom of the tank

Nonsense! AFAIK Petrol and diesel readily mix, years ago people used to put 10% petrol into the diesel during winter to stop it waxing up.

 

Another dealer pulling the wool over the customer's eyes :unsure:

[jkspoff]

Some would even suggest diluting the unleaded with 65 litres of diesel to fill, this would be sufficient to burn efficiently........

[Guest vr6galaxy]

the dealer said that petrol will sink to the bottom of the tank

Nonsense! AFAIK Petrol and diesel readily mix, years ago people used to put 10% petrol into the diesel during winter to stop it waxing up.

 

Another dealer pulling the wool over the customer's eyes :unsure:

Afraid not! there was an article in one one papers a while back about the cost of sticking petrol in a diesel, one the bill quoted was

[Guest vr6galaxy]

another..........

 

So diesel makes good sense. But if a motorist who has used petrol all his or her life buys or borrows a new diesel car then uses the wrong nozzle at the filling station, costly damage can be done even before the ignition key has been inserted, because unlocking the doors also energises a diesel's fuel pump.

 

That puts the fuel under pressure, ready for instant injection into the engine, which is why modern diesels start so quickly. The old-fashioned waiting time for preliminary ignition "warm-up" might appear to have been eliminated, but in reality it has simply been electronically absorbed into pre-driving procedures. It is a clever and convenient development but it comes at a price for the absent-minded.

 

Petrol wrecks diesel engine lubrication processes and is particularly damaging to a diesel engine's costly, high-pressure fuel pump, which operates at up to 2,050bar (30,000psi). Petrol removes the pump case hardening and if a film of hardened metal disintegrates into swarf it will greatly harm or even wreck an engine's internal organs.

 

At best, if the engine is not started or perhaps run only very briefly, the fuel tank and its internal pump, fuel lines, main high-pressure pump, fuel injectors and filters will all require removal, clearing and re-installation (which might include some renewal) at a cost of up to

[seatkid]

:unsure: Yes all very well quoting blurb....., but let me point out

 

PD's have no high pressure pumps per se as have conventional distributor pump or common rail systems. The fuel is just presented at low pressure to the PD injector. The BIG advantage of PD is the high pressure wear prone mechanism is OUTSIDE the injector, (the camshaft) and is lubricated by the engine oil.

 

So, no stripping of wear surfaces....and before someone says "it wears the inside of an injector" I disagree, for one the engine stops almost immediately, and the pressure in the injector maintains a film between any close surfaces.

 

It'll just clean the injector.

 

afaik the electric lift pump is the standard design used in both VW petrol and diesel models and runs immersed in the fuel tank.

 

And seals can remain in the North Sea where they belong.... :lol:

[Guest vr6galaxy]

 

And seals can remain in the North Sea where they belong.... :unsure:

Now that's not fair! some of those seals have trained long and hard, it's not easy learning to balancing a beach ball on your nose in a 7/8 foot swell in a force 9 gale :o those that do have earned the right to travel to where the work is! ie. Disney land, Cottle brothers circus and so on, denying them that right is not on :lol: and you should be ashamed of yourself even thinking it yet aloud making your feeling known publicly

 

http://www.tvmurman.com/img/articles/tulen01.jpg

[Guest MATT]

Apparently, someone with an X5 had done the same thing a week before my neighbour, and it cost him

[johnb80]

sarciod, don't listen to the doom and gloom merchamts, my transit did over 180,000 miles AFTER the fuelling mishap with no problems. Seatkid is spot on, petrol did use to be used to stop diesel waxing in winter time, diesel and petrol do mix without problems.

Syphon out what you can, fill up with diesel and go.

 

Regards - John

[johnb80]

Apparently, someone with an X5 had done the same thing a week before my neighbour, and it cost him

[Guest MATT]

Secondly, VW actually tell you to mix petrol and diesel in winter time in the manual for the golf diesel of many years ago. Whether you would or wouldn't is irrelevant to this discussion...

Talk about this forum getting too serious?

 

Anyway, I have already said, that if he simply removes all the fuel, does the filter, and runs some diesel through the pipes, he will most probably be ok. i was not trying to be a "doom and gloom merchant", but face the facts, you've put the wrong fuel in, you have to face whatever consequences there might be.

 

MATT

[johnb80]

Secondly, VW actually tell you to mix petrol and diesel in winter time in the manual for the golf diesel of many years ago. Whether you would or wouldn't is irrelevant to this discussion...

Talk about this forum getting too serious?

 

Anyway, I have already said, that if he simply removes all the fuel, does the filter, and runs some diesel through the pipes, he will most probably be ok. i was not trying to be a "doom and gloom merchant", but face the facts, you've put the wrong fuel in, you have to face whatever consequences there might be.

 

MATT

But you also said about a neighbour spending

[Guest marcusheawood]

...surely shome mishtake, you mean ciao. ;)

[wytonpjs]

Just to add my tuppence! Moment of senility in Germany last year resulted in me filling up my Galaxy on the day of my return with unleaded - pity as it's a diesel! However, I realised error before starting - tried to explain problem to German cashier but I can only order beer in German! To shorten story, she phoned husband who turned up 10 mins later, pushed car into workshop and then pressure siphoned fuel out of tank. Big concerns over rupturing tank but they used a restrictor to reduce air pressure down. Biggest problems were getting a pipe down to the bottom of the tank and the extreme cold from the compressed air/petrol vapours leaking from the wad the tank opening was blocked with. Reckon we got all bar a couple of litres out, filled back to the gunnels with diesel and then off to Calais (from Ramstein). No problems watsoever! Cost was 50 Euro plus the new diesel. No problems since!

 

BTW as an ex-member of the Armed Services who at one point has responsibility for 400+ vehicles (inc specialist MT AND Lex White Fleet vehicles) it was policy to dilute diesel in extreme cold temps with up to 10% petrol to reduce/obviate waxing problems.

 

My local garage has just drained another diesel Gal this weekend with petrol in the tank - another loss of power condition. Despite running this one, fill and flush has cured. Fingers crossed, this guy will be similarly lucky!

[Andrew T]

Apparently, someone with an X5 had done the same thing a week before my neighbour, and it cost him

[Guest vr6galaxy]

 

? The answer could be something as simple as voice message saying "Diesel" when you remove the nozzle from the pump. Better still a system that makes it physically impossible to put the wrong fuel in, how about a square nozzle for Diesel ?

 

Apparently this in the process of being done! via the number plate, when you pull on most fourcourts your plate is read, this will then be checked against the records and the fuel type noted :( the pump will then not allow you to pump the incorrect fuel :)

[johnb80]

That will be fun when I take my can for the lawn mower then :( I'll have to get a diesel mower.

 

Regards - JB

[Guest MATT]

So fuel pumps are going to start giving me ERROR messages now are they?

 

MATT

[seatkid]

bleep....LPG!...STAND WELL CLEAR....bleep.....LPG!.......STAND WELL CLEAR.....

[Guest MATT]

I can just imagine a TV advert for the system,

some BMW owner pulls up to the pumps, he the gos to refuel his petrol car with diesel, just as he puts the nozzle in, the pump starts laughing and mocking him, then little men come from no where, and are dancing round the car, pointing at him, and also laughing and mocking him. when all the other drivers see that hes trying to put the wrong fuel in, then they also start laughing, then its a black screen, that reads, don't make a fool of yourself, use Morrison's petrol pumps that use automatic fuel recognition.

 

http://www.miamisig.org/files/Random/Umpa.jpg

 

MATT :(